{"id":6208,"date":"2012-09-08T09:04:46","date_gmt":"2012-09-08T14:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kathyschiffer.com\/?p=6208"},"modified":"2016-09-30T15:58:45","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T20:58:45","slug":"you-are-what-you-dosaythink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kathyschiffer\/2012\/09\/you-are-what-you-dosaythink\/","title":{"rendered":"You Are What You Do\/Say\/Think\u2026."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>I read once that when a neurosurgeon touches a spot<\/strong> on the human brain with a probe, he elicits memories.\u00a0 All kinds of memories:\u00a0 a moment in childhood, a school day, a family vacation from years past. \u00a0Sights, sounds, tastes, smells, feelings.\u00a0 Pain and pleasure, fear and fury and fun.\u00a0 Whatever is stored on that particular neural tract, on the slender, myelin-wrapped pathway, is revealed by the surgeon\u2019s gentle touch.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a sobering thought.<\/strong>\u00a0 That means that everything we have thought and said and done\u2014little kindnesses and base betrayals, virtues and sins\u2014is still there somewhere.\u00a0 We think we\u2019ve gotten over the hurt of a high school rejection, we\u2019ve quit smoking, we\u2019ve left behind our childish habits; but those things are part of the mix, kneaded into the dough of our experience and contributing to the flavor of our very being.<\/p>\n

We are who we are today\u2014but just as surely, we are who we have always been.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The story was brought to mind recently<\/strong> by news reports of Maggie Meier, a young hoops star from Blue Valley Northwest High School in Overland\u00a0 Park, Kansas.\u00a0 Maggie became ill in 2008 with mycoplasma meningoencephalitis, a rare, intense form of meningitis.\u00a0 She was in a coma for nearly three months; and during that time, she couldn\u2019t speak or write or recognize family or friends.<\/p>\n

What Maggie could do, though, was shoot basketballs.<\/strong>\u00a0 The movements required to drive a basketball into the hoop were \u201cso ingrained as one of Maggie\u2019s basic instincts,\u201d explained her neurologist, that her body remembered how to do it before she could walk or even stand.<\/p>\n

The point I\u2019m trying to make here<\/strong> is that for Maggie, the repetition of shooting hoops\u2014the feel of the basketball in her hands, the swoop of her arms toward the basket\u2014had been deeply imprinted in her brain.<\/p>\n

You are what you do<\/span>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s\u00a0good to reflect on this<\/strong>\u2014to realize that on the Day of Judgment, we will stand before God and, like the surgeon touching a probe to our myelin strands, He will expose all that we have done, all that we have been.\u00a0 Words spoken in haste, lies told to protect our reputations, traffic laws violated when no one\u2019s looking, schemes to move up the social ladder:\u00a0 Like Adam and Eve, we will be aware of our nakedness and will blush in shame.<\/p>\n

How can we evade this fate?\u00a0 We can\u2019t.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But starting today, starting right now,<\/strong> we can begin to paper over the weaknesses, the embarrassing trivia of our lives, with memories that will stand up to Christ\u2019s scrutiny.<\/p>\n

We can give freely of ourselves to friends and strangers.\u00a0 We can smile at small children and at the homeless man on the street.\u00a0 We can say \u201cI love you\u201d whenever possible.\u00a0 We can murmur prayers, sweet ejaculations of praise, as we go about our day.\u00a0 In time, we will find those prayers on our lips as we open our eyes to the morning sun; and it is then that they will be imprinted on our neural pathways, etched in myelin.<\/p>\n

And when the day comes<\/strong>\u2014when our life on this earth is over and when at last we rest in the arms of the Father\u2014we will have a great blanket of love to cover over the offenses and shortcomings.\u00a0 We will still blush, as any imperfect thing blushes in the presence of great purity and light.\u00a0 But we will hold up our gift of love, grateful to have something to offer\u2014glad to have, in our lives, magnified the meager talents we were given.<\/p>\n

\n

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2013Philippians 4:8<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I read once that when a neurosurgeon touches a spot on the human brain with a probe, he elicits memories.\u00a0 All kinds of memories:\u00a0 a moment in childhood, a school day, a family vacation from years past. \u00a0Sights, sounds, tastes, smells, feelings.\u00a0 Pain and pleasure, fear and fury and fun.\u00a0 Whatever is stored on that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":556,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[519,547,2931],"class_list":["post-6208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-judgment","tag-maggie-meier","tag-virtue"],"yoast_head":"\nYou Are What You Do\/Say\/Think...<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When a neurosurgeon probes a spot on the brain, he elicits memories. 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